about
Documenting Ukraine at war
Since 2022, Doualy Xaykaothao and Valeria Fokina have followed the lives of Ukrainians living through war.
the reporting
American journalist Doualy Xaykaothao and Ukrainian producer Valeria Fokina have reported across Ukraine since April 2022, just weeks after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.
As the two women traveled across the country, sometimes with a driver and security personnel, the roads were lined with heavily guarded checkpoints, and entering major cities required passwords only Ukrainians could pronounce. The team traveled from the west to the east, from the Carpathian Mountains to the Black Sea, recording hundreds of interviews along the way: between air raid alarms, on trains and farms, inside bomb shelters, and at cemeteries. They witnessed heart-crushing moments: family losses, starving animals, destroyed neighborhoods. But they were also uplifted by collective resistance, kindness, and unexpected moments of raw humanity, of people determined to survive.
Europe’s second largest country, once home to 42 million people, remains under martial law and is at the center of one of the world’s most violent conflicts. As of spring 2026, Russia’s full-scale war has killed an estimated 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Civilian casualties exceed that number. Russian losses are believed to be five to six times greater. Millions of Ukainians have been driven from their home as the war stretches on.
You Can't Take The Sky, an original podcast series, brings listeners into the lives of everyday heroes across Ukraine.
During wartime, many Ukrainians inked special words or images on their body. When we were interviewing people in the city of Dnipro, a female businesswoman showed us her tattoo, inspiring us to use it for our podcast name. Everywhere people in Ukraine are exhausted from the war, but they continue to fight on.
meet the team
Doualy Xaykaothao | Host
Doualy Xaykaothao is an American journalist with more than 25 years of reporting in public media. She started her career in radio at WHCR in Harlem, ripping and reading wire copy, then worked on shows at WBAI and eventually moved to NPR, where she has worked as a producer, editor, director and reporter for NPR's award-winning news magazines. Her work in the United States, recognized with Peabody and Edward R. Murrow Awards, is known for its urgency, global perspective and empathetic storytelling.
Valeria Fokina | Producer
Valeria Fokina is a Ukrainian artist who produces, translates and fixes –making all the arrangements for interviews, travel and accommodation. These talents made her the lifeline to the telling of the everyday life of Ukrainians in a time of war. But it is her singular sense of duty to truth and witnessing of war that made her invaluable to this podcast. She treated every interviewee like family, honoring their time, their space, their story.
Nikita Simonchuk | Producer
Nikita Simonchuk is a Ukrainian international law attorney and Kyiv volunteer who helps deliver food and supplies to families hardest hit by Russia's invasion. In between volunteering and working on court cases, he assists journalists from The New York Times, You Can't Take The Sky and other outlets. His sharp eyes and ears helped the podcast better represent diverse Ukrainian voices and sounds.
Sáša Woodruff | Editor
Sáša Woodruff is the news director at Boise State Public Radio and has more than two decades of broadcast news experience with NPR, Public Radio International and American Public Media. The beauty of this podcast is as much a result of her ear for dignity in storytelling as her hand at fermenting persimmons, piping cream puffs and nurturing bioluminescent petunias – knowing which details matter.
Steven Cuevas | Editor
Steven Cuevas is an award-winning, veteran public radio journalist whose career began in San Francisco in the late 1990s and spans roles as bureau chief, host of the statewide California Report, co-host of the popular arts and film show The Frame and more recent reporting for NPR. This podcast grew strong through his storytelling expertise and his advice on how to better help voices reach far and wide and stay with listeners long after the interview ends.
Charlene Koutchak | Editor
Charlene Koutchak is an Iñupiaq private practice owner, a trauma-informed nutrition counselor and a former radio journalist once based in Anchorage. Her experience in helping to amplify Alaska Native voices and stories helped the podcast stay poignant in the telling of Ukrainian experiences that are not always easy to tell or, sometimes, not easy to hear.
Melinda Rolls | Website Designer
Melinda Rolls is a recent graduate of Hofstra University, where she earned a degree in journalism and developed an interest in the intersection of storytelling and design. The podcast is indebted to her strength in visual storytelling and the website she helped to create, giving these untold stories a place to be heard.
Camryn Bowden | Producer
Camryn Bowden is an award-winning journalism and political science student in the five-year dual-degree bachelor’s and master's program at Hofstra University's Lawrence Herbert School of Communication. She started reporting with WRHU-FM in 2024, quickly growing her involvement across the news and talk departments in the station. The podcast benefits from her vision for content engagement and powerful storytelling.
Alexa D'Amato | Social Media Manager
Alexa D'Amato is a multimedia journalism student at WRHU, Hofstra University's five-time award-winning Marconi radio station on Long Island. She previously interned at ABC 7 On Your Side, NBC 10 Boston and FOX Business Network and will be a summer intern with ABC 9 WMUR. The podcast is thrilled to have her savvy sense of business direction to promoting the stories and experiences of Ukrainians living through war.
Nicklas Dickerson | Sound Designer
Nicklas Dickerson creates original musical compositions that he uses to communicate the urgency surrounding the need for global peace and synergy between all human beings and ecosystems. Inspired by how different elements of the war between Russia and Ukraine have affected us all, he created the music and sounds that flow through the podcast and give it a musical narrative as unique as the spoken words.
Shawn Corey Campbell | Sound Designer
Shawn Corey Campbell was strolling down the street minding his own business when a public radio van pulled up. Candy was offered, and a 30-year ride through the world of public broadcasting began. His long audio trip began with a flirtation with commercial radio, followed by stints at the Alaska Public Radio Network and NPR in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. He was a producer, composer and mixer for The Slow Melt, a podcast about chocolate. Now he pushes faders in California at LAist.
Chien-Chi Chang | Magnum Photos
Magnum photographer Chien-Chi Chang generously donated a dozen photographs of scenes from Ukraine, collected since 2014. We are humbled and deeply grateful.
Marko Halanevych | DakhaBrakha Quartet
Our podcast team agrees that Marko Halanevych is super "class" to give permission to use the quartet's song Vesna in our storytelling project. While his DakhaBrakha Quartet was on their March 2026 tour in the United States, he green-lit our use of the emotional "Spring" song, saying: "Everything for Ukraine."
Hand on our heart thanks to these individuals:
Samuel Myers • Karen Emmons • Phil Nash • Alicia Moua • Evergreen Chou • Marjorie Lee • Mai N. Moua • Jill Swenson • Chieng and Lena • Sharon and Branan • Nathalie and Keith • Jon Funabiki • Shary and Fuyei • Christina Yang • Hannah Bae • Bo Thao-Urabe • Jeff Severns Guntzel • Edmund Fong • Brandon Edling • Nicklas Dickerson • Tamara Payne • Brian Klocke • Justin and Fanny • Matt Cohen • John Choe • Rochelle Riley • Katia and Thor • Katherine and Mark • May and Kevin • Melissa and Jeff • Mai Driggers • Will Gardner • Susanne Wild • Billy Berger • Chong and Shoua • Gia and Thomas • Meggan Ellingboe • Evan Ramstad • Laura Yuen • Thear Suzuki • Nova Safo • Phung Smith • Yua and Bee • Lauren Migaki • Joanna Kakissis • David Kim • Lia Chang • Jennifer Wolfe • Steven Cuevas • Mary and Del • Gia Vang • Doua Thor • Mai Neng Hawj • Nirmal Ghosh • Susan Kasser • Nina Wimuttikosol • Michel Naopao • Latsamy Dongsavanh • John Mullen • Pete Silverman • Andy Gladding • Kathleen Shortis • Mario Murillo • Mark Lukasiewicz